Just check if the honey is made here. There was some brouhaha because Capilano was importing honey from China where the natural pollination doesn't work and workers had to hand pollinate the flowers instead. I can't find any info on that but when I attended the RAS earlier this year the Department of Primary Industries had a stand warning against this. Speaking to some Mudgee honey-owners, they pinged Capilano as a perpetrator of importing honey and blending it with the local stuff.

Edit, this is the only thing I could find over the China-made but Aussie-labelled honey product (royal jelly):

Trevor [bee keeper] has made many representations to people like AQIS and the Therapeutic Goods Administration Authority re the importation of the royal jelly. We are not against importation but we believe it should be on a level playing field and the product should be correctly labelled and tested. Firstly, royal jelly from China is not checked for any residues. The Australian authorities refuse to do this. Why? We donâ€™t know. So we most likely have royal jelly coming in with residues. How do we know this? Because, in Europe it is checked and they regularly find chloramphenicol in royal jelly. Other possible contaminants of royal jelly are tetracyclines, trimethoprim and sulphamethoxazole as these have been found in honey imported into the EU from China. AQIS does not check for all of these in imported honey despite their being found in the EU.

Back in 2005, there was royal jelly which was exported to the EU from Australia. According to the Rapid Alert Food System in the EU, this contained chloramphenicol. We are not sure if AQIS ever followed this up or if any prosecutions ever eventuated. Trevor have asked in the past and received no answer. Maybe this Committee can find out.

It is most likely that the source of the royal jelly used in this product â€œfrom Australiaâ€ was Chinese. We are aware of another case of royal jelly from Australia that was picked up by Japanese authorities as having residues of chloramphenicol.Sorry for being long winded but we thought we should fill you in on the background. Now, the royal jelly is imported from China and most commonly sold in capsules. Because the extender used, the capsule case and the packaging are from Australia, it is allowed to be called â€œMade in Australiaâ€. This is very misleading as the main label on the product is royal jelly and this is not Australian.

Now when these are found overseas to have residues, then it is assumed that the residues are from the Australian content when this is incorrect. A couple of years back, China was banned from sending apiary products, along with other products, to the EU because of residues of chloramphenicol. At that time, the royal jelly was being imported into Australia, not tested, repackaged as â€œMade in Australiaâ€ and sent to the EU which assumed it was Australian royal jelly because of the labelling. Hence the finding of residues in the â€œAustralianâ€ royal jelly. The same sort of thing is done with propolis which is imported from China, processed in Australia and then labelled as Made in Australia.

We know we have to compete with imports and cannot ban them just because they are cheap but surely we can make sure that the labelling is such that it tells the customer what is the source of the product that is being sold. In this case, if the royal jelly is coming from China then it should not be called â€œMade in Australiaâ€. If the customer is willing to buy the product knowing full well it comes from other than Australia, so be it. At least there is truth in labelling to allow them to make that choice. Also, there should be testing of royal jelly coming into Australia. The EU Rapid Alert System contains many examples of royal jelly from China with unacceptable residues in it. So why would the royal jelly coming to Australia from China not also contain these residues?

Major packers such as Capilano have for the first time been importing honey from China and Argentina to meet local demand, which has added to the soaring prices, but these countries now have production problems of their own, sending world prices to record highs. In the supermarkets a 375 gram jar costs $4.75, a one kilogram jar $9.60 and a 2.5 kilogram pot $19.98.

Interesting read. Wonder how those dextrose gels compare for this sort of thing. I'd be tipping they're primarily HFCS and could contain other contaminants. I guess because honey is supposed to be natural there's a bigger reaction.If only they made a honey flavoured gu gel

I like Aldi and Beechworth honey. Aldi sells honey from Kangaroo Island (but think they were pinged by the ACCC earlier this year for misleading labelling too LOL). Costco sells 1kg batches of Beechworth honey. When I go up to the country I usually just buy honey from the stalls on the side of the road.

Spring Gully Foods has been ordered to apologise for misleading consumers about its Kangaroo Island honey.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has investigated the honey, sold through Aldi supermarkets.It found between January 2008 and mid 2010, jars labelled Just Organic, made with honey produced on Kangaroo Island, mostly contained honey from elsewhere.The honey was between 0.84 per cent to 50 per cent Kangaroo Island honey.Only one batch had 100 per cent honey from Kangaroo Island.Kangaroo Island is home to the last remaining pure ligurian bee population in the world, and the ACCC says it wanted to protect the reputation of Kangaroo Island honey. Aldi Foods and Spring Gully have accepted the ruling that they misled consumers, and will apologise in this Sunday's newspapers.

When I worked for CHristian Dior, they claimed their stuff was 'Made in France'. However, they made the liquid (perfume and aftershave) in Singapore, the bottles in India, and just put the liquid in the bottles in France. But, if they were running short on time and couldn't get them to France in time (which happened about 60% of the time), they'd just assemble them in India, and keep the France on the label, where it was supposed to be made. Heaps of manufacturers do this.

Rambling aside, the shotz are great, if not a little small. Look at the energy in grams, and you'll see a GU is enough for an hour, while these are barely enough for 15 minutes..

Tried them as we were given some samples at a recent charity ride and found the concept ok but can be messy if you rattle too much in the pocket looking for things as the seal on the back is just air tight and the one I had did end up squirting messy sticky honey in a back picket for a 140km ride in a hot summer hot

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